Yomi's Glasses
by Midori Sakura
Summary: Tomo Takino was an exasperating first grader. Her antics were always, always pushing limits to the extreme, but that’s just the way she was. She never really meant any harm. Tomo x Yomi friendship fic


So, I guess this is my third story on this account! It's a Tomo/Yomi friendship fic, since I just recently watched Azumanga Daioh and fell in love with it. Do enjoy the story, and I'm sorry if there are any typos, grammar issues, or whatnot.

**Title:** Yomi's Glasses

**Summary:** Six-year-old Koyomi Mizuhara finally gets glasses. Leave it to Tomo Takino to give Yomi her personal opinion on her new spectacles.

**Disclaimer:** Azumanga Daioh belongs to Kiyohiko Azuma.

* * *

Tomo Takino was an exasperating first grader. In her two short years at school, she had managed to let the class guinea pig out of its cage, make six of her classmates cry, sit in the corner twenty-eight times, and even get Cheerios stuck up her nose. Her antics were always, _always_ pushing limits to the extreme, but that's just the way she was. She never really meant any harm.

As the six-year-old hopped to her classroom one autumn morning, she made sound effects every time her red sneakers hit the ground. Tomo continued jumping up and down into the building until Hitomi-sensei gently chided her and showed her to her chair. The bell rang, signifying the beginning of class, and the energetic child plopped down in her seat.

She turned to her right and grinned at the girl next to her, who was sitting at her desk already. "Hi, Yomi!"

"Shh, Tomo, I think class is star—"

Tomo gasped and leapt out of her seat, pointing at Yomi. "WHOA! What's that on your face?"

Koyomi Mizuhara's cheeks burned a bright red and her hands unconsciously made their way to the wire frames sitting on her nose. Over the weekend, her mother had brought her to the eye doctor because she could no longer see very clearly. For the past few weeks, Hitomi-sensei had noticed a decline in her usually bright student's performance in class. The first graders were currently learning a few more kanji characters, so she would illustrate the correct stroke order on the chalkboard for her students to see. On days when she would hand out worksheets for her class to copy them onto, Yomi's characters were always slightly off.

She met with Yomi's mother after school one day, when she suggested that her daughter's eyesight be checked. Sure enough, little Koyomi had inherited her mother's poor vision and also astigmatism in her left eye.

This is why, as Tomo stared at her friend with a sharp gaze, Yomi was the main focus of her attention. Surprised at Tomo's reaction to her glasses, Yomi's words got jumbled up in her throat and she couldn't find anything to say. Much to her relief, Tomo's outburst was noticed by the teacher so the entire ordeal, at the least, could be put off until recess.

"Takino-san, please sit down so I can start today's lesson," Hitomi-sensei called from the front of the room.

"But, Sensei! Yomi's got—"

Hitomi-sensei shot a stern gaze at Tomo, who backed down reluctantly and returned to her seat. As for Yomi, a deep blush remained on her face and she avoided eye contact with her classmates, who had turned to stare at her, too. She especially avoided looking at Tomo, for she could already feel her curious friend's eyes boring into the side of her head.

---

Yomi had never dreaded the chime of the bell for the beginning of recess more than she did today. Her stomach did a somersault inside her when she heard Tomo scoot her chair backwards and get onto her feet. Tomo skipped over to her desk and leaned her head so close to Yomi's that it almost scared the bespectacled girl.

What surprised her even more was the fact that, after a few moments of silence as Tomo looked intently at her glasses, she burst out laughing.

"Hey, Yomi! Why are you wearing those things anyways?" she giggled to herself. "You look kinda weird!"

"Be quiet, Tomo! It's 'cause I can't see very good," Yomi replied, frowning.

"Hehehe, Yomi looks weird! Yomi looks weird!" Tomo began dancing around, chanting her newfound phrase over and over again.

"Stop it!" Yomi yelled, but her words fell on deaf ears. Clenching her fists tightly, she felt her eyes begin to sting behind her lenses. "I'm…I'm going to tell Sensei that you're being mean if you don't stop that right now!"

"Nah, I'm just kiddin' with you, Yomi!" Tomo laughed. Barely a second later, she started to play with Yomi's hair. "Did you know you have really long hair?" Tomo twisted some of the amber tresses with her fingers.

After a few awkward moments on Yomi's part, Tomo let Yomi's hair fall back into its natural position. "Hey, let's go play. I wanna see if I can make it all the way across the monkey bars today!" With that, Tomo ran towards the door.

Sighing to herself, Yomi was secretly glad that Tomo had dropped the topic of her new glasses. Just when she made to hurry after her friend, who was already halfway out the door, Tomo spun around again.

"Hurry up, four-eyes!"

---

Sitting on a bench by herself, Tomo Takino was terribly confused. One minute she was playing with Yomi (Tomo thought she was playing, but she was actually making the poor girl feel worse and worse about her new glasses) and the next minute she was being ignored. She didn't understand why Yomi seemed mad at her.

_"I don't want to play with you today," _Yomi had told her, stiffly, when Tomo had asked why she wasn't coming outside with her.

Maybe she shouldn't have laughed about Yomi's glasses.

Tomo got off the bench and wandered around the playground aimlessly. She was deep in thought. As she walked along, she came to the chain-link fence enclosing the section of the schoolyard the children were allowed to play in. She absentmindedly ran her finger along the plastic covered metal diamonds.

"Nah, Yomi shouldn't be mad at me," Tomo concluded aloud. "I was just joking about her glasses being weird, and jokes aren't bad!" Seemingly coming up with a convincing thought, Tomo nodded happily. "Jokes are funny, not bad. Yomi's just being a poop-head."

---

Sitting in the classroom by herself, Koyomi Mizuhara was anything but confused. She was mad, she was sort of sad, she was feeling rather self-conscious, and she was bored and lonely. The absence of her friend, Tomo, brought her mixed feelings. She was glad she wasn't there because she would probably just be teasing her some more. Sometimes Tomo could be so dumb!

What made everything more complex was that Yomi didn't want to stop being friends with Tomo. When she wasn't laughing at her, or teasing her, or yelling too loudly, Tomo was fun to be around. She had some nice things about her. Yomi remembered the time she was sick at home with the flu and Tomo had insisted that her mother drive her all the way to Yomi's house so she could bring her some soup. Tomo had tried to persuade her that it was her "special, secret recipe soup" that she made all by herself, but Yomi could recognize the flavor as the kind of soup that was sold in cans at the supermarket.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Yomi tapped her pencil on her desk as she thought about Tomo. Deciding that Tomo was just a big bother, she slammed her pencil down and it rolled to the floor.

She didn't quite know what to make of her situation, so she brought out a book from her desk. Reading was nice.

---

It had been three days since Yomi stopped talking to Tomo. On this particular Thursday morning, Tomo sat at the picnic tables during recess. She didn't like recess anymore. It was no fun playing on the swings if nobody was there to push you. It was no fun playing hopscotch or kickball or _anything_ if there was nobody to have fun _with_. She looked across the playground and saw her friend sitting at a different picnic table, reading the same book she had been reading for the past few days.

Tomo would know, she observed her sometimes.

"Doesn't Yomi get bored reading that dumb book every day?" Tomo wondered out loud. When nobody gave her an answer, she huffed. _She_ was the one who was bored. Tomo jumped to her feet and ran inside the classroom. She supposed she could find something to play with inside today.

Somehow she found herself wandering to her desk. She sort of felt funny, too. There was nobody in the classroom except for Hitomi-sensei, who was looking rather alarmed. She was coming over to her.

"Tomo-chan," she started, voice soft compared to her normal tone. Tomo also noticed the difference in the way her Sensei was addressing her. "What's the matter? Why are you crying?"

Tomo didn't know she was crying. She swiped at her eyes and sure enough, she was. It was almost as if everything suddenly began to overwhelm her all at once, and she felt wobbly inside. Her voice was shaky, "I…I… Yomi…"

She couldn't get what she was trying to say out correctly, as sobs tried their best to break up her speech. Hitomi-sensei watched the usually energetic and happy child in front of her break down. Not knowing what else to do, or what was going on in the first place, she pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to Tomo. When she didn't take it, she bent over and wiped Tomo's face off as best she could.

"What about Koyomi-chan?" she asked, remembering that Tomo had mentioned her name.

Taking in a deep, trembling breath, Tomo held back another sob. "Yomi…she…she doesn't wanna be my friend anymore!"

Hitomi-sensei frowned. She thought those two were inseparable, despite the odd sort of friendship they had. They were always together! Then again…she noticed some awkward behavior between them the past few days.

"Ah, Tomo-chan, I'm sure that's not true."

Hitomi-sensei watched Tomo pull on the bow on her uniform silently, sniffling.

"Do you want me to talk to her for you?"

Tomo, still in tears, nodded.

Yomi had just finished rereading her book for the fourth time when she looked up to see Hitomi-sensei standing over her.

"Hello, Koyomi-chan," she said cheerfully.

"Hi, Sensei," replied Yomi. She put her book face-down on the table top and looked up at her teacher. There were small hints of confusion in her expression.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tomo-chan," Hitomi-sensei told her. Yomi grimaced at the thought.

"Oh," she said.

"Did you two have a fight?"

Yomi nodded slowly. "She acts so dumb sometimes."

Hitomi-sensei took a seat next to Yomi. "I know everyone has disagreements sometimes, Koyomi-chan," she said. "Tomo wants to keep playing with you, though. Let's go over to her and talk about this, okay?"

Freezing up, Yomi shook her head fiercely. "But I don't want to!" Her voice was strained and Hitomi-sensei noticed that she, too, was at the brink of tears. "Tomo was…mean to me." The last part was said quietly. "She laughed at me and said my glasses were weird."

The child had to take her glasses off to rub her eyes, pointlessly, for tears kept coming. Hitomi-sensei took out her last handkerchief and dried Yomi's eyes with it. The six-year-old dropped her gaze to her knees.

The young teacher took a moment to look up at the sky. "Hey, Koyomi-chan, I think we should go and talk with Tomo-chan now, okay?"

Yomi nodded her head, then allowed Hitomi-sensei to take her by the hand and lead her into the classroom where her friend was.

---

Meanwhile, while waiting for her teacher to come back, Tomo had climbed back into her chair and sadly put her head on her desk. She covered it with her arms and sniffled. Not too long after, she heard timid footsteps approaching her, so she poked her head up, only to see Yomi standing in front of her.

Tomo frantically tried to wipe away any tears that might have been still visible on her cheeks. However, the only thing that followed this was silence. Both girls stared at each other quietly.

Reaching her hand out, Yomi tapped Tomo on the head lightly, causing her to flinch. She smiled at Tomo, causing her friend's chest to swell with relief.

"Yomi! I'm sorry!" Tomo wailed. She jumped out of her seat and tackled Yomi to the ground, bringing two desks down with them. "I don't wanna stop being friends."

"Silly Tomo, I'm still your friend," Yomi reassured. "You just need to act better sometimes!"

Hitomi-sensei watched in amazement as Tomo's spunk returned almost instantly.

"So, Yomi, does this mean we can go outside and play now?"

"Actually," Hitomi-sensei interrupted, "recess is about over now, you two." Both Yomi and Tomo pouted in unison. "But don't worry, lunchtime is only in a couple of hours."

In a few minutes, all of the first graders returned to the classroom. Hitomi-sensei resumed class by announcing an art project that they were going to do next. There were some cheers and other noises of excitement made by her eager students.

As most of the children kept themselves busy by diligently coloring in paper cutouts of autumn leaves, Tomo sat idly, staring at her best friend instead. She burst out into giggles at her sudden realization.

"Hey, Yomi?"

"Yeah, Tomo?"

"I think those glasses actually sorta make you look pretty!"

Yomi just smiled.


End file.
